Educational Grant Search

After searching through the directory for awhile, I came across two grants that I am very interested in applying for.  Unfortunately, the grant I am most interested in has closed for this year's applications, so I will save you the time and just mention why I like that without going through my follow up.  The one that has closed and I hope to apply for next school year is the NCTM Connecting Math to Other Subject Areas.  This grant would allow math teachers the funding to find better ways to help students relate mathematics to other subjects and fields (Hopefully answering the everyday question, "When will I ever use this?").  

The grant I will be applying for is the ISTE Outstanding Young Educator Award.  This award is meant for an educator under the age of 35 who uses technology in innovative and effective ways.  The award for this is a $1,000 stipend for travel along with registration to ISTE's annual conference and one-year membership.   I have been interested in educational technology since my undergraduate days, and I have been fortunate enough to experience and learn through through West Chester's Educational Technology courses.  I love to include technology in my classroom in any way that will improve student engagement and understanding.  Although I may not be the most innovative teacher out there when it comes to technology integration, I do my best to continue including it everyday in my practice in a variety of ways.  If I were to be lucky enough to win this, the opportunity to learn and collaborate at the ISTE conference would be invaluable to my future as an educator.

The next steps for me will be to prepare for the nomination and application period that will open up December 1st.  The main items that I will need to have in order are the letters of recommendation and multimedia materials.  I hope to have my department chair and principal or assistant principal write letters of recommendation over the next few weeks.  On my end, I plan to go through my educational technology portfolio that I developed in Dr. Penny's previous class, along with my history of digital materials that I have used in class.  Depending on the number of items and the type of items ISTE is looking for, I will try and select my most innovative and effective pieces to have ready for the application.

Screencast

My apologies for my voice in the video...I am trying to recover from a little cold the past week.  Also, I know I went over the 7 minute limit slightly, so I apologize for making you listen to me the extra minute...I hope you don't mind.